Wednesday, June 22, 2011

ARZone Podcast 2: Live Exports

Tim Gier reads out the ARZone Mission Statement and then the ARZone team, Carolyn Bailey, Barbara DeGrande, Tim Gier, Jason Ward and Roger Yates discuss the ongoing controversy about live exports to Indonesia from Australia.Click on the embedded player above - or LISTEN HERE.At about 6 mins in, this image is the subject of the discussion.And just for fun...

Very interesting discussions on the issue of whether there could be collaboration between all the groups who are working on behalf of animals in some way. I hadn’t realised the complexity of some of the issues such as banning live export in one country may increase the suffering of animals as they may just be brought from other countries further away.

I wondered though if all groups could agree to work towards the goal of getting CCTV cameras in all factory farms and abattoirs, and the establishment of a team of people whose job it would be to monitor the cameras at all times. With strict procedure for the process of killing animals, that involves some kind of sedative before they are killed and the least painful method of slaughter possible.

I am not speciesist, I wish there were no exploitation of any animal, human or non human, but whilst there is, if all groups could get together to work on vigilantly monitored CCTV, penalties for mistreatment of the animals, and the most humane death possible…we could achieve a great reduction in suffering.

I understand that one of the issues that comes up then is…are we then supporting animals being exploited and killed? Are we then encouraging people to continue to kill and eat animals because they think they are suffering less? But the act of murder, the sentiency of animals, the issue of speciesism could still be the end goal for abolitionist groups, through education, once these new more humane welfare practices have been established.

If we asked the animals what they thought… I think it would be for their treatment to be monitored, the conditions of their lives improved, and their suffering at the point of slaughter to be reduced to a minimum, now.